[06] TUSIAD HEAD YALCINDAG: "TURKEY SHOULD COMPLETE ITS NATIONAL PROGRAM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE"

In the wake of his landmark visit to Armenia over the weekend, President
Abdullah Gul is set to visit neighboring Azerbaijan tomorrow. During his
visit, Gul is expected to tell his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Alivey
about his recent visit, and to exchange views on the Upper Karabakh issue
in an effort to bring together the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides at the
UN's General Assembly meeting in New York later this month. Diplomatic
sources said that Azerbaijan had no opposition to Turkey's efforts to
normalize relations with Armenia but that it has also urged Ankara not to
open its border unless the Upper Karabakh issue is resolved. They also said
that Armenia favors such a meeting. In New York, Gul will also seek support
for Turkey's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for
2009-2010. A quartet meeting with the attendance of Gul, Foreign Minister
Ali Babacan, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian is also scheduled to be held during the General Assembly. /Aksam-
Turkiye/

The government places great emphasis on education, and devotes the largest
share of the nation's budget to education, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan yesterday. Erdogan made the remarks at a school in the southern
province of Gaziantep, at a ceremony marking the beginning of the 2008-2009
school year. Saying that over the last five years education's share of the
budget rose from $7.5 billion to nearly $30 billion, and 123,000 new
classrooms have been built, he added that today nearly all students in
Turkey have broad-band Internet access and access to technology courses.
Erdogan also again accused the Dogan Media Group of waging a smear campaign
against the government by trying to link it with corruption. Urging the
group to report the truth, he also charged that the group's newspapers
distort the news. "The media group and its newspapers have acted like this
to pressure the government to make decisions in their favor, but no longer,
" he added. /Turkiye/

The political power cannot pursue unlimited authority, said Supreme Court
of Appeals Chief Justice Hasan Gerceker yesterday. Addressing a ceremony
marking the beginning of the judicial year, Gerceker warned against
"totalitarian systems," adding that criminal gangs work to fill vacuums in
the rule of law, in an apparent reference to the Ergenekon probe. Saying
that criminals should face punishment as soon as possible after their
conviction, Gerceker also spoke about judicial issues such as personal
rights. Stating that compounding one mistake with another damages society
even if there are good intentions behind this, he added, "Determining who
is guilty and interpreting the law is the judiciary's duty, and everyone
should respect this under the rule of law. I hope that a just path is
reached through not mixing right and wrong, and not politicizing law in the
judicial process." Among those attending the ceremony were President
Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz
Baykal, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hasim Kilic, Council of State
head Mustafa Birden, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin and Interior
Minister Besir Atalay. /Star-Aksam/

[04] CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO RELEASE FULL DECISIONS ON TWO LANDMARK RULINGS
NEXT MONTH

Full decisions on two recent landmark Constitutional Court rulings will be
released early next month, said Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hasim
Kilic yesterday. Speaking to a ceremony at Parliament marking the beginning
of the judicial year, Kilic told reporters that in October they will
release full decisions, including the court's legal reasoning, on a case
upholding the Constitution's headscarf ban at universities, and its
decision not to close down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
/Aksam/

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal
yesterday lambasted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's criticisms of the
Dogan Media Group's efforts to link him to a fraud case involving a German-
based Turkish charity. Speaking to reporters at CHP headquarters, he said
that Erdogan was alarmed and uneasy about the current atmosphere, adding
that he would bring the Dogan allegations before Parliament. /Milliyet/

[06] TUSIAD HEAD YALCINDAG: "TURKEY SHOULD COMPLETE ITS NATIONAL PROGRAM AS
SOON AS POSSIBLE"

Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) Chairwoman
Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag and an accompanying delegation yesterday met with
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn in Brussels. Afterwards,
Yalcindag said that Turkey's problems and the EU's are similar, and that
they agreed that Turkey and the EU can find solutions together. Yalcindag
said that the EU is expecting Turkey to complete its recently announced
national program as soon as possible. She added that Rehn was also in
contact with Turkish opposition parties and that they should mobilize to
gain momentum on the EU issue. /Cumhuriyet/

Columnist Ilter Turkmen comments on President Abdullah Gul's visit last
week to Armenia to watch a soccer match. A summary of his column is as
follows:

"Anything which ends well is good. President Abdullah Gul's visit to
Yerevan last week also went well. Nothing unpleasant or excessive happened,
and the protests against him weren't widespread. The Armenians who watched
the World Cup qualifying match between Turkey and Armenia were very
dignified and mature as well. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian will
probably accept Gul's invitation to attend the return match a year from
now. But presidential visits to watch soccer matches aren't enough.

I wrote on Saturday that if Gul's visit didn't produce concrete results, it
wouldn't be surprising if this provoked domestic political debate. In
addition, as Radikal daily's Cengiz Candar wrote, unless the rapprochement
represented by the visit is followed by opening diplomatic relations and
borders between the two countries, this will result in deep frustration.
Candar added that resolving this frustration would be harder than
addressing the current problems.

Apparently Gul's visit wasn't just symbolic or pro forma. Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian told reporters in Yerevan that after Gul left,
he had met with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan and that they reached a
consensus to work on opening the borders and diplomatic relations between
the two countries. This development signals very genuine change in Turkey's
stance, because up to now these two steps have been contingent on solving
the Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Will these two processes be conducted together, or will Turkish-Armenian
relations be discussed in a completely different framework? We don't know
exactly, but the Karabakh issue can't be solved so quickly. Linking these
two processes would drag out the normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations. Some argue against opening the border and establishing
diplomatic relations, saying, for instance, that Armenia hasn't forsaken
its territorial claims on Turkey, and that Armenia's declaration of
independence and Constitution refer to southern Anatolia as 'Western
Armenia.'

If they really include this concrete territorial claim, one might ask why
we were one of the first states to recognize Armenia. Another argument
cites Armenia's reluctance to ratify the 1921 Treaty of Kars. But here, it
would be inexplicable why we didn't insist on recognition of the border
before recognizing Armenia.

A few years ago I was a member of the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
Commission. Before the commission disbanded, the Turkish and Armenian
coordinators wrote a letter to the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers
expressing their views on opening the border on the basis of Kars. At that
time, the Armenian members didn't think Yerevan would oppose ratifying
Kars.

I don't know what happened next, but I guess the main reason for our
reluctance to open the border and establishing diplomatic relations comes
from not wanting to offend Azerbaijan. Perhaps for the same reason,
priority was given to bringing together historians from both sides to
improve relations, because such a meeting seemed unlikely to provoke
Azerbaijan's direct opposition. It was nearly impossible for historians to
agree on a historical interpretation of the events of 1915. Our president's
initiative for normal friendly relations between Turkey and Armenia could
finally prove that we've started to cast off the restraints which have so
far kept us from solving our own problems."